Step-by-Step Painting - "Shelter"

"Shelter"

This last week I was given the fun opportunity to create a piece for my church's art gallery! Each piece contributed by congregants had to be accompanied by a verse that either inspired the creation of the artwork, or that the piece of artwork called to mind. As I've had the Swedish kurbits on my mind quite a bit lately, I chose a passage that I felt connected with the theme of kurbits as symbolizing God's protection over his creation, and which helped to inspire me to venture further into my folk art journey. The the passage was Matt. 13:31-32:

"He told them another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds may come and perch in its branches.'"

For the purposes of this piece, I felt that the best medium would be acrylic paints on canvas. As this would be my first piece of dalmålning on canvas, this would also be something of an experimental piece for me as well. To get started, I collected the following materials:

• A plain white painting canvas (20'' x 24'')

• Large sheets of packing paper to place underneath my workspace (newspaper can work as well)

• A measuring tape

• A ruler

• Paper towels

• A jar of clean water

• A paint pallet

• A regular mechanical graphite pencil

• Acrylic paint brushes

• Acrylic paints

• A plastic toothbrush

• Embossing tools

The colors that I used for this piece were:

• Lamp (Ebony) Black

• Snow (Titanium) White

• Burnt Sienna

• Tuscan Red

• Cadmium Yellow

• Hauser Medium Green

• Hauser Dark Green

• Colonial Blue

• Deep Midnight Blue

Step 1: Background

For the background, I wanted it to be a bright yellow color with a bit of visual "texture" to it. To get this look, I started by painting a layer of white onto the canvas, and then adding the yellow atop that by painting inward from the edges using a large dry brush. This would cause the yellow to fade in intensity as it came towards the center, and give it a visual affect almost resembling the grain of wood.

It was at this point that I noticed how the wooden support piece on the back of my canvas began to show through as my paintbrush went over like, like when you take a rubbing of stonework with a pencil.

To help compensate for this, I went ahead and did another set of yellow dry brush strokes, this time starting from the center and brushing out towards the edges. This covered up the tracing of the wood beam, and also helped to fill out the background's coloring in a way that I liked. An unexpected win!

To give the background a bit more texture, I also applied a splatter technique using a plastic toothbrush. I did this by putting some Ebony Black paint on the toothbrush, and then gripping the toothbrush so I could run my thumb over its bristles, causing the paint to splatter in fine, random droplets. Depending on how much you load the brush, and how you move your hand across the canvas as you do this, you will get different looks to your splatters. It's good to experiment to see which splatter patterns you like best. (And to also be prepared to get a bit messy, and make sure you aren't accidentally splattering on any other objects nearby.)

Step 2: Design Prep

After my background was ready, the next step was to lightly draw the design that I wanted to paint. Usually, when working with smaller pieces, I would draw the pattern out on tracing paper, and then use graphite paper to transfer the image precisely onto the piece I was working on. In this case, however, I didn't have any tracing paper large enough to work with. So instead I had to do a lot of eyeballing and freehand work. To help me out though, I used a measuring tape to measure out where I wanted my borders to be, and to also use the straight edge of the measuring tape to draw them on. For the parts of the design that weren't totally straight, I used the measuring tape to find where I wanted the center of the symmetry to be, and then use that as a reference point for drawing the rest of the design. Eyeballing a pattern like this takes a lot of practice, but it is doable. Or you can also use large sheets of tracing paper to help you out if you have them.

[Note: You don't necessarily want to get too detailed with the sketch of your design, as parts of it will be painted over, and it will be hard to see the lines anyway. Mostly, this stage is for getting the basic shape of the design you would like to paint, and the finer details will be added later.]

After sketching out my basic design, I then added a single layer of white to it. This would help the other colors to look distinct from the background, and prevent elements of the background from showing through where I didn't want them to.

At this stage, you can choose whether to paint the central design or the borders first. In my case, I chose to do the borders first.

Step 3: Borders

To do the borders, I again did some light sketching of the patterns I wanted to paint, and then applied the base colors to the main shapes. For the bottom pattern, I also used a ruler to help space out evenly the zig-zag shapes, and to make their sides straight. Once the base colors were dry, I added the finer details like stripes, squiggly lines, and dots. To get the fine dots in the middle of the flowers on the bottom, I used an embossing tool by dipping its point into white paint, and then gently dabbing it where I wanted the dot placed.

Step 4: Central Design

Just like when painting the borders, I also applied base coats to the main shapes of the central design. Once these were dry, I could then start adding more details. Since the shapes of my central design were quite big, I began adding my details by giving them lighter and darker shading. Once I had the shading down, I then added details like the stripes and dots on the vase, the details on the birds' plumage, the lines on the leaves and flowers, etc. This is the time when you can really bring your artwork to life and add details that make the eye travel around the piece!

I hope this step-by-step overview of how I painted "Shelter" was helpful and insightful to you! If you have any other tips or feedback for me for step-by-step posts like this, please comment below or send me a message. If you would like to hear more information and reflections regarding the Swedish kurbits, be sure to check out the links below.

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"The Mead Hall" blog post, 'Kurbits' and Reflections on Peace - https://kolbitarfolkart.wixsite.com/kolbitar/post/kurbits-and-reflections-on-peace

"Swedish kurbits paintings" by Viveca Lammers - https://swedishdalapaintings.blogspot.com/2012/02/swedish-kurbits-paintings.html.